Just Another Bad Dream
by forgetpoundgivemekoenig
Summary: How I imagine Isaac's potential nightmares about Erica would go.


Erica is sitting on his chest.

Her long legs are folded, neatly, underneath her and she's studying her fingernails with her mouth turned down, like she doesn't like what she sees. He's so used to the pose, classic Erica, that he laughs at it and catches her attention. Her eyes spark and she smiles, leaning down to kiss him on the cheek, their usual greeting, with all the gusto of someone who's been gone for far too long. It's all so natural, so normal, that he doesn't wonder why she's sitting on his chest or why she's alive in the first place. He just revels in the fact that she chose _him _and grins back at her easily.

"Erica." Her name, these past few months, has never sounded so good.

"Isaac." He's missed the sound of his name in her voice, the slight stress she puts on the first two letters, as opposed to the norm of putting the slight stress on the last few. She'd never liked being normal, no matter how hard she'd striven for normalcy in the beginning.

"How have you been?"

"The worst." She complains, "My hair is a mess." She runs her fingers through the tangled mass and pouts, though she soon begins laughing at her own silliness and pulls her feet out from under her, swinging them over the side of the bed Isaac was gifted a few weeks ago. She kicks at the edge, bouncing the heels of her feet against the frame, "I see you have a bed now."

"Yeah." Isaac feels a bit guilty, since she doesn't, "We forgot to get you one."

"That's okay." She speaks calmly, "I'll just sleep with you."

"Okay." Isaac agrees. They both fall silent, Erica kicking her feet against the bed and Isaac watching her, the silence more comfortable than any other silence he's ever had to face. She has a slight smirk on her lips, like she finds life to be perpetually ironic, and he drinks it in because it's been a while since he's seen it. He can't really believe he's seeing it now.

"How have _you _been?" She demands, pausing in her vicious beating of the side of the bed to look at him, "Since I've been gone." She smiles softly at the last thought and tilts her head, like she's thinking of something really interesting, but she doesn't bother to share with Isaac. He's used to secrets, especially ones being kept from him, so it doesn't bother him like it should.

"Not good." He states simply, "We've missed you."

"Please, "Erica scoffs, "Derek only cares about his little pack when he _needs_ his little pack."

"That's not true."

Erica glowers at him, "Oh, really?"

She doesn't add anything else, but Isaac begins to doubt himself anyway.

"Really." He finishes lamely and she smirks, a mean smirk, one that says she knows she's won. Isaac doesn't like that smirk, so he tries to think of something else to say, but everything sounds like blame and he doesn't feel like pointing fingers. At least, not until the sun is up and he doesn't feel so tired. Erica sighs, long and loud, and slides off his chest and onto the floor. Her fingers pulls the covers from his chin down to his knees and she crawls in beside him, making herself comfortable against his side.

"I missed you." She snuggles close to him and her breath is cold against is neck, cold when it's usually warm, and he finds this weird. He doesn't say anything, though, because he doesn't want to ruin the moment. He likes having Erica this close, pressed to his side like she always used to be, and he reaches down to grip her hand. She easily intertwines their fingers, a smile playing at the corners of her lips.

"I missed you too." Isaac answers, "Boyd and Derek missed you."

"Did Stiles miss me?"

"Most of all." Isaac tells her what she wants to hear.

"Liar." She doesn't say it like she means it, so he relaxes in her fingers and her cold breath. Her fingernails are ragged and scratch the skin they touch. He winces when one nearly draws blood and she laughs, "Sorry."

"It's okay." Her laugh, so hard and so angry, scares him.

Something about this Erica isn't right.

Something about this Erica is wrong.

"I like you, Isaac." Her voice wavers and sounds colder than her breath. Her fingers, the ones not scratching his skin, move up his arm and draw circles on the skin near the sleeve of his shirt. The circles prickle and burn, when once her fingers were soft and the shapes soothing. Isaac winces and tries to pull away, but Erica's arm snakes across his waist and yanks him closer, "Don't."

"You're hurting me." He whines and she laughs, longer and louder and meaner.

"You hurt me more, Isaac."

"What do you mean?" He demands and presses a fiery kiss to his cheek.

"Don't worry about it."

"Tell me!" He demands and feels her breathy laugh, not nearly as loud but just as mean, ghosting across his collar.

"You left me, Isaac." She says, "You left me to die."

"What do you mean?" Isaac's breath is short and sharp, "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I mean." Erica taunts, "You left me."

"I didn't!" Isaac argues.

"You did." Erica counters coolly, "Where were you when they killed me?"

"I was looking for you!" Isaac tries to remember exactly where he was, exactly what he was doing, but everything is jumbled and incoherent in his mind, "I was!"

"You never looked for me!" Erica spits, "You didn't care!"

"I did!" He can't remember if he did; did he?

"You don't care about me and you never did!" Erica's nails bite into his flesh and he cries out, yelling for her to stop, even as she digs in deeper, "You wanted me to die!" Her voice is shrill and not like the voice he remembers. Her breath is freezing against his neck and suddenly he realizes her body is too.

"Get off!" he struggles to break free but she's too strong, "Erica!"

"You left me, Isaac!" She shrieks, louder and louder, "_You left me to die_!"

"No! Stop! I didn't!" Isaac pleads, "I miss you, Erica!" He screams it and he's crying and her grip slackens, her nails don't bite, and she looks up at him. Her cheeks are stained with dirt and tears and she breathes like she doesn't have very long to live. Somehow, it's more terrifying than before.

"I miss you too, Isaac." She closes her eyes, breathes once more, and than she's gone.

"Erica?" Isaac scrambles out of the bed and looks down at her, "Erica?"

She doesn't say anything.

She doesn't move.

She's gone.


End file.
